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Centrella probe includes wife She files to end 28-year marriage after spending ill-gotten gains BY BRIGITTE RUTHMAN REPUBLICAN-AMERICAN

Former Winsted Finance Director Henry Centrella is led into a courtroom at Litchfield Superior Court for his arraignment in August. His wife, Gregg, who is filing for divorce, is part of the investigation into his alleged theft of millions of dollars from the town. Republican-American archive

WINSTED — When the town claimed Henry Centrella's pension and home in a lawsuit — an attempt to recoup some of the millions the former finance director allegedly stole — his wife got to keep her income and her car.

What remains unclear is how much Gregg Centrella knew, or participated in, her husband's lavishly funded other life, which included frequent high-roller gambling and a mistress in Florida, police have said.

Gregg Centrella, married for 28 years, is filing for divorce, confirmed Henry Centrella's attorney, Robert F. Dwyer. The details are in progress for an official court filing.

She remains part of the investigation into her husband's alleged theft that runs from Winsted to Florida, home of his girlfriend, a church-going woman who told police she thought he was divorced and moving south to be with her. Court documents, police and a town officials have linked the 52-year-old Winsted woman to the spending of her husband's ill-gotten gains, but prosecutors have declined to comment about her involvement, citing the ongoing investigation.

By state statute, Gregg Centrella is exposed to the possibility of arrest.

Receiving stolen property or money is a crime under state law, but only if the individual charged knew or probably knew it was stolen or wrongfully taken. Circumstantial evidence is sufficient proof for conviction, according to the law.

According to court documents, Gregg Centrella told police when their investigation started that she had not spoken with Centrella in months, although they lived in the same house, and she said she had no knowledge of family finances.

Allegations detailed in a 23-page arrest warrant claim Gregg and Henry racked up $548,792 in gambling debts from 2008 through 2012 at Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos. The amount was based on police seizures of documents obtained during a search of their home at 198 Gilbert Ave.

No one from either casino would comment.

All of the Centrella's bank accounts were jointly held, investigators said. Police said some gambling losses were paid with cash, and not from bank accounts.

SOME OF THE STOLEN LOOT is said to have ended up in Florida, where mistress Angela Etman has been living in the town of Celebration since she was issued a Florida driver's license in May 2009, near Disneyworld. It was a double life family members who declined to speak on the record say Gregg Centrella knew nothing about.

Etman arrived unannounced in Winsted last December, looking for the man she had introduced to family and friends as her fiancee.

Town Manager Dale Martin describes the Centrellas as sharing in the benefits of stolen funds.

"I had a close working relationship with Henry Centrella Jr. and socialized on occasion out of work," Martin said in a statement filed as part of the municipality's lawsuit against the couple. "I was aware of his family situation and it is my belief that he and his wife, Gregg E. Centrella, combine their marital assets and finances and share expenses. They file joint tax returns and deposited money into joint bank accounts."

"GREGG CENTRELLA SHARED IN THE BENEFITS of Henry L. Centrella Jr.'s fraud by having access and use of the false tax refunds and the funds converted from the town of Winchester accounts," he added. "The loss of funds and the damages to the town of Winchester should allow the town to obtain punitive damages against Henry and Gregg Centrella."

Martin fired Centrella Jan. 17. State police arrested him for first-degree larceny Aug. 30. Held on $100,000 bond since then in a New Haven prison, his case is pending in Litchfield Superior Court where he faces the possibility of a lengthy prison term.

As of July, the town had paid Blum Shapiro, an auditing company, $102,916 "to uncover the illegal fraud schemes." The amount is expected to increase. Documents collected by police are still being copied at the State's Attorney's office for Dwyer.

Centrella has refused to cooperate with auditors.

Denise M. Cloutier, a Litchfield attorney who represents Gregg Centrella, did not return phone calls. Gregg Centrella works as a paraprofessional at the Batcheller Elementary School where she earns $19,000. She could not be reached for comment, and representatives of the school declined to speak with a reporter.

Police said Centrella used several methods to defraud the town, all of them dependent upon the trust he had developed with co-workers during his decades-long tenure as a town official.

One of the schemes involved the theft of small bills and change he withdrew from town bank accounts "under the guise of supplying change to various town departments when no department had requested it or needed the change," documents state. He also changed deposit tickets for cash amounts delivered to his home or his desk by town employees. And he inflated his wage withholding with the IRS and the state of Connecticut Revenue Services by filing false joint tax returns, police said.

" It's been strongly rumored that the Centrella's allegedly had $60,000 worth of home renovations done at their home some ten years ago and paid the $60,000 bill in cash to the alleged contractor, a former Selectmen. That doesn't set off bells, again? The wife didn't know about that?????? "

" A ppalled to read that she is STILL working at Batcheller school and being paid $19,000 a year. How does she face the children and their parents, her coworkers every day KNOWING she was a "high roller" (as previously reported) at the casinos along with her husband? this woman has apparently no shame. Divorcing her husband won't help her now - - saying I didn't know won't save her as no one believes that. She went to the casinos, helped spend the money in other ways. I want to see her arrested and in a jail cell for her silence and willing participation. "

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